Over 120 international politicians and diplomatic figures warned tensions caused by global conflict are so high that we are at risk of nuclear war, the gravity of which many world leaders do not appreciate, The Independent reported.

"Tensions between nuclear-armed states and alliances in the Euro-Atlantic area and in both South and East Asia remain ripe with the potential for military miscalculation and escalation," reads a letter signed by former Vice-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe John McColl and the U.K.'s former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell among others.

The letter, written ahead of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, comes at a time a U.S.-led coalition of air strikes is targeting extremists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which continues to terrorize and kill locals in the name of establishing a caliphate.

In Yemen, al-Qaeda militants beheaded an American hostage named Luke Somers last week after the group released a video claiming he would be killed if the U.S. did not meet its demands.

In eastern Europe, a nine-month conflict in Ukraine led by pro-Russian separatists, currently halted by a shaky ceasefire, has caused a return in Cold War-like relations between the West and Russia, which is one of nine countries that possess nuclear warheads, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Those nuclear warheads, of which the ICANW says there are over 16,000 worldwide, and other stockpiles are not kept secure, "making them possible targets for terrorism," the letter reads.

"In a vestige of the Cold War, too many nuclear weapons in the world remain ready to launch on short notice, greatly increasing the chances of an accident," reads the letter addressed to Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sebastian Kurz.

"This fact gives leaders faced with an imminent potential threat an insufficient amount of time to communicate with each other and act with prudence," the letter continues according to The Independent.

China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, Great Britain, North Korea and the U.S. also have nuclear warheads, according to the ICANW.

The U.S. and Russia have the largest nuclear stockpiles in the world.